Label-Free Telomerase Activity Detection via Electrochemical Impedance Spectroscopy

In the last decade, researchers have been searching for innovative platforms, methods, and techniques able to address recurring problems with the current cancer detection methods. Early disease detection, fast results, point-of-care sensing, and cost are among the most prevalent issues that need further exploration in this field. Herein, studies are focused on overcoming these problems by developing an electrochemical device able to detect telomerase as a cancer biomarker. Electrochemical platforms and techniques are more appealing for cancer detection, offering lower costs than the established cancer detection methods, high sensitivity inherent to the technique, rapid signal processing, and their capacity of being miniaturized. Therefore, Au interdigital electrodes and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy were used to detect telomerase activity in acute T cell leukemia. Different cancer cell concentrations were evaluated, and a detection limit of 1.9 × 105 cells/mL was obtained. X-ray photoelectron spe...